Homicides in New York City, 1797-1999 [And Various Historical Comparison Sites] (ICPSR 3226)

There has been little research on United States homicide
rates from a long-term perspective, primarily because there has been
no consistent data series on a particular place preceding the Uniform
Crime Reports (UCR), which began its first full year in 1931. To fill
this research gap, this project created a data series on homicides per
capita for New York City that spans two centuries. The goal was to
create a site-specific, individual-based data series that could be
used to examine major social shifts related to homicide, such as mass
immigrati... (more info)

There has been little research on United States homicide
rates from a long-term perspective, primarily because there has been
no consistent data series on a particular place preceding the Uniform
Crime Reports (UCR), which began its first full year in 1931. To fill
this research gap, this project created a data series on homicides per
capita for New York City that spans two centuries. The goal was to
create a site-specific, individual-based data series that could be
used to examine major social shifts related to homicide, such as mass
immigration, urban growth, war, demographic changes, and changes in
laws. Data were also gathered on various other sites, particularly in
England, to allow for comparisons on important issues, such as the
post-World War II wave of violence. The basic approach to the data
collection was to obtain the best possible estimate of annual counts
and the most complete information on individual homicides. The annual
count data (Parts 1 and 3) were derived from multiple sources,
including the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports
and Supplementary Homicide Reports, as well as other official counts
from the New York City Police Department and the City Inspector in the
early 19th century. The data include a combined count of murder and
manslaughter because charge bargaining often blurs this legal
distinction. The individual-level data (Part 2) were drawn from
coroners' indictments held by the New York City Municipal Archives,
and from daily newspapers. Duplication was avoided by keeping a record
for each victim. The estimation technique known as "capture-recapture"
was used to estimate homicides not listed in either source. Part 1
variables include counts of New York City homicides, arrests, and
convictions, as well as the homicide rate, race or ethnicity and
gender of victims, type of weapon used, and source of data. Part 2
includes the date of the murder, the age, sex, and race of the
offender and victim, and whether the case led to an arrest, trial,
conviction, execution, or pardon. Part 3 contains annual homicide
counts and rates for various comparison sites including Liverpool,
London, Kent, Canada, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San
Francisco.

Access Notes

The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public.
Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Study Description

Citation

Monkkonen, Eric. Homicides in New York City, 1797-1999 [And Various Historical Comparison Sites]. ICPSR03226-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2001. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03226.v1

Universe:
All homicides in New York City and various comparison
sites between 1797 and 1999.

Data Types:
administrative records data

Data Collection Notes:

A detailed list of the sources used to create
these data files can be found in the Appendix to the codebook.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
There has been little research on United States
homicide rates from a long-term perspective, primarily because there
has been no consistent data series on a particular place preceding the
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), which began its first full year in 1931.
To fill this research gap, this project created a data series on
homicides per capita for New York City that spans two centuries. The
goal was to create a site-specific, individual-based data series that
could be used to examine major social shifts related to homicide, such
as mass immigration, urban growth, war, demographic changes, and
changes in laws. The researcher chose to focus on a specific
geographic area because the composite national data did not provide
the details needed for careful analysis. Data were also gathered on
various other sites, particularly in England, to allow for comparisons
on important issues, such as the post-World War II wave of violence.

Study Design:
The basic approach to the data collection was to
obtain the best possible estimate of annual counts and the most
complete information on individual homicides. The annual count data
(Parts 1 and 3) were derived from multiple sources, including the
Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports and
Supplementary Homicide Reports, as well as other official counts from
the New York City Police Department and the City Inspector in the
early 19th century. When there were discrepancies among sources, the
principal investigator used the source giving the higher count, based
on the assumption that missing information tends to bias toward an
undercount. The data include a combined count of murder and
manslaughter because charge bargaining often blurs this legal
distinction. The following incidents were excluded from the counts:
accidental homicides, infanticides, cases involving children under 5
except when evidence in individual cases made it clear that these were
murders, women who died during the course of an abortion, riot
victims, the killing of an offender during the course of an arrest,
and legal executions. The individual-level data (Part 2) were drawn
from coroners' indictments held by the New York City Municipal
Archives, and from daily newspapers. Duplication was avoided by
keeping a record for each victim. The estimation technique known as
"capture-recapture" was used to estimate homicides not listed in
either source.

Data Source:

(1) Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime
Reports and Supplementary Homicide Reports, (2) New York City Police
Department, (3) New York City Inspector, (4) coroners' indictments,
and (5) daily newspapers

Description of Variables:
Part 1 variables include counts of New York City
homicides, arrests, and convictions, as well as the homicide rate,
race or ethnicity and gender of victims, type of weapon used, and
source of data. Part 2 includes the date of the murder, the age, sex,
and race of the offender and victim, and whether the case led to an
arrest, trial, conviction, execution, or pardon. Part 3 contains
annual homicide counts and rates for various comparison sites
including Liverpool, London, Kent, Canada, Baltimore, Los Angeles,
Seattle, and San Francisco.

Response Rates:
Not applicable.

Presence of Common Scales:
None.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2001-11-29

Version History:

2006-03-30 File CB3226.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.

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